Gatewood’s track-and-field teams hosted a meet last Wednesday in Eatonton.
The Gatewood boys’ team placed first overall with 125 points, defeating rivals Brentwood and Trinity Christian, which both tied for second place with 102 points. Skipstone Academy finished third, with Twiggs Academy fourth.
“We had a great showing. We beat two of the top teams in the state in a head-to-head track meet,” Gatewood head coach Jeff Ratliff said of Brentwood and Trinity.“I am very proud of our team, but we must continue to improve. Winning a regular season meet and winning a state title are two different things. We must continue to get better.”
On the girls’ side, Brentwood placed first overall with 110 points, but the Lady Gators posted a second-place finish with 76 points, well ahead of Trinity and Twiggs.
“I thought we had a pretty good meet on Wednesday. We had some really good performances, and we had girls back up their performance from the first meet. We are building a formidable team to compete for a region and state title,” Ratliff said.
The coach said he didn’t want to focus too much on the girls’ team score right now, predicting it “will take care of itself” by region time.
“Our focus must be on getting better and better each day,” Ratliff said. “I will continue to look at girls in different events until I figure out where we have the best chance to succeed.”
Gatewood’s boys had several first-place field finishes, including Blake Callaway in the high jump and triple jump events, as well as Jayden Daniel in the pole vault. The Gators also had several second-place finishes in the field events, with Callaway (long jump), Blake Daniel (discus), Landon Moreno (triple jump), and Jack Davis (pole vault) all having great days. Moreno finished third overall in the long jump as well.
The Gators also shined in running events, highlighted by first-place finishes in the 4x100-meter relay (Jackson Hewatt, Jayden Daniel, Callaway, and Jackson Lundy), 4x400-meter relay (Jack Wooten, Callaway, Lundy, and Kaden Keiser), and 4x800-meter relay (Luke McNeill, Jack Wooten, Cale Ferguson, and Keiser).
During the individual running portion of the meet, Lundy placed first overall in the 400-meter final with a time of 53.02 seconds. John Vande-Planque posted a second-place mark of 20.05 in the 110-meter hurdles, while Wooten finished with a 2:15 mark in the 800-meter race, giving him a second-place finish.
Gatewood’s girls had several top finishers in field events, but none more impressive than Ellie McMillian with a mark of 88 feet, 6 inches in the discus throwing event, enough to take first place.
Kendall Ward had a second-place finish in the shot put, while Lexi Moss was second overall in the pole vault.
During the relay events, the Gatewood girls’ 4x100-meter relay team of Natalie Sills, London Durden, Presley Moss, and Laine Nistler placed first. The Lady Gators had a few of their relay teams finish third as well.
Ansleigh Hillin placed first overall in the 3200-meter race with a time of 17:26, while Presley Moss also finished in first place in the 400-meter run. Durden placed second in the 100-meter hurdles, while Moss placed second in the 200-meter race, Nistler finished second in the 100-meter race, and McMillian came in second place in the 400-meter race.
“We need to get better. Our goal doesn’t change from week to week,” Ratliff re-emphasized. “We have to find ways to get better and trust that our hard work will pay off.”
Gatewood hosted another track meet this Wednesday (past print time), with results to follow.